Mr. Fellowes laughed.
“There is a twist in her somehow and we have come to a nasty obstruction. When she is properly straightened she’ll be a fine creature, but the untwisting will be too gradual for you, my poor Ruth, you’ll be worn out before it’s finished.”
“One would think she was a boa constrictor, I believe she has a touch of its nature too; she crushes hearts enough anyway, and with just as little compunction. I am sorry for young Patrick Hamilton, I love that boy.”
“Which is no reason at all why Gwen should. The girl doesn’t flirt, and he sought his crushing with open eyes. I believe it’s the girl’s brains as much as her beauty that dominates and reduces men’s hearts.”
“Very likely—the bigger fool a man is, the more he is vanquished by brain, especially if it keeps itself in the background and doesn’t frighten him. He likes the agreeable sensation of importance the possible possession of such a power gives him, and in his state of nervous tension, the creature is apt to get mixed and to imagine that the power he worships radiates somehow from him to his idol instead of contrariwise.”
“A very comprehensive summary of our modes of thought, my dear, racy but untrustworthy. I don’t, however, imagine that in Gwen’s case any man is quite ass enough to imagine himself the source of her intellectual strength.”
“Oh, perhaps not, Gwen’s getting beyond me. If she goes on like this, between brains and beauty, she’ll be no better than a charnel house for crushed hearts. Pah!”
“For the shadow of the things, not the substance—do you imagine the victims haven’t as firm a hold on their organs as ever they had? It’s only an idea they lose half the times.”
“Well, they make as much moan over it as if it were a very tangible flesh-and-blood article all bristling with nerves. I hate to look at Patrick’s face, I wish he would go and shoot buffaloes, or take a tonic, or do anything but drink tea in that chair and draw sympathy out of me with those soft cowey eyes of his! He had only just left when you came.”
“I should be glad for your digestion’s sake if he would recover himself, you’ve swallowed three cups of tea in ten minutes.”